One of the things that really impresses me about Fallout 3 is how much an RPG it is compared to Oblivion. Oblivion just comes off as being really dumbed-down and most of your skills ultimately seem pointless. And if you want someone to like you, you just have to mess around a little bit with the persuasion wheel.
All of that is different with Fallout 3. The dialogue is so much better in Fallout 3 that it's almost mind-blowing. Nearly every NPC has several paragraphs of at least decently written dialogue, by a wide variety of voice actors that do a fairly good job. There's a lot of dialogue choices and some that are affected by your karma, intelligence, charisma, and skills, which generally appear in the form of choices with a percentage chance of working. You dialogue choices actually feel like they make a difference.
There's a lot more variety in the quests as well. Sure, there's still some fetch quests, but there are a lot that are genuinely interesting to do.
Another thing is that good weapons and armor are earned by doing hard quests and fighting hard enemies. You can't just level up on easy monsters and then pick up the best items in the game from random bandits. Weapons also degrade the more you use them, so you have to find more or have them repaired. However, money is relatively scarce in this game. And what money you do have is often spent on healing agents and ammo. You can also find schematics to construct your own custom weapons.
Radiation plays a much bigger factor in Fallout 3 than in previous games. It's every where from the water to the food and in several other key places [like the unexploded atomic bomb in Megaton or the waste disposal facility]. You can heal by drinking water and eating food, but whenever you do you also ingest a certain amount of radiation which can have negative effects on your character. Radiation doesn't go away on its own either, you need to visit a doctor or take some meds.
At times, the game can be HARD. Just walking around the wasteland can be the death of you if you happen upon some super mutants or some particularly strong bandits. This is especially true early on when your weapons and armor are weak. Don't be surprised if you die more than once just walking around in the open.
Fuck this melee shit. I gotta get a better gun.
Melee only is going to be a pain to do. You'd need a huge amount of health and lots of armor because guys will shoot at you from hundreds of feet away.
oh, and I found some guy living in the middle of a nuked out city who just has sexy parties with these two almost naked chicks all the time. This game is awesome.
Where's that at?
